News and Updates from AI Technology Inc.
With the summer season nearly upon us, AI Technology has been hard at work developing new materials and reaching out to new markets. We have recently set up a LinkedIn company page for AIT. Please connect with us to stay informed about new products and upcoming events.
AIT and The “Harvard Microrobotic Fly”
AIT manufactures adhesives and thermal interface materials for various applications throughout the world.
With all the new electronic products being designed every day, we find it very exciting to see where our epoxies are being used.
The “Harvard Microrobotic Fly” is one of the more interesting products made with our epoxy. Designing a small robotic fly that fits on your fingertip requires many hours of good methodical mechanical engineering to get the correct vertical lift off, wing speed and stability. Along with a good mechanical design, it is also important to have a good flexible epoxy for adherents with CTE mismatch. Our EG8050 (2-part epoxy) was chosen for this application not only for its well known flexibility, but also because of its excellent electrical and thermal conductive properties. EG8050 exhibits very high adhesion properties and can withstand hours of vibration, pressure and temperature changes without losing any of its physical or electrical properties. Like many of our other epoxies it can be formulated with specific thixotropic properties for dispensing onto very tiny areas, similar to what is required for robotic and MEMs manufacturing. In addition to this two-part epoxy being used for this robotic fly, we have many two-part epoxies that have longer pot life and shelf life with equally high thermal and electrically conductive properties.
Please follow the website below to find out more about the Harvard Microrobotic Fly and click on the AIT link to learn more about how our products can be used for your applications.
Moisture Resistant Flip-Chip Die-Attach Adhesives
ME8456-series of die-attach adhesives have been used for critical military electronic die-attach applications for over 20 years with outstanding reliability. This molecularly flexible and high thermal and electrically conductive adhesive paste has been engineered for large area die attach.
The engineers and chemists of AIT have recently incorporated other critical characteristics into this product to enhance its usage in high temperature and high humidity environments. ME8456-HR and ME8660-HR has a stud stamping viscosity of 9,000 cps at 5 rpm. They can be cured from 80-150°C to form flip-chip interconnections and work equally well for the standard backside die-attach.
Both of these epoxy based adhesives have been molecularly modified for moisture stability with no change in bond strength and resistivity upon 85°C/85%/RH exposure.
ME8660-RH has been formulated to have over 3,000 psi die-shear strength. ME8456-RH is more flexible and more suitable for extremely large die. ME8660-RH and ME8456-RH are compatible with our moisture-resistant under-fills such as MC7883 and ME7665-RC that have been proven in standard flip-chip applications.
Outsider Functions and Arts
If you live in the New York metropolitan area, you have probably heard of the Strom King Art Center in Hudson Valley. Taking advantage of the unusually warm spring weather, I recently visited the art center. While walking around, I touched many of the huge jaw-dropping sculptures with the beautiful Hudson Valley landscape in the background.
As an engineer, I marveled at the intricacy in balancing the artistic forms with the supporting structures that must maintain their function under a tremendous amount of stress and strain. However, I was also intrigued by the artists’ selections of protective coatings for their outdoor art works. Some art works required protection from the weather elements while preserving the natural color, texture, and varying degree of gloss on the art media. Synthetic materials needed protection from yellowing under the sun’s powerful UV radiation.
I was equally impressed while strolling around the Philly area. Many unusually attention-grabbing glossy recycle/trash bins in the city intrigued me as much as the outdoor art works did from both a creativity and functional perspective. These recycle/trash bins have solar panels on top to energize a compactor to reduce the volume and the number of trash pick-ups as well as send signals for collection when the bins are full.
AI Technology’s SC7130-Clear is designed for coating the front side of solar panels. This fluoro-polymer-base coating is transparent to UV and visible spectra, and in most applications, does not add any UV protection. If UV blocking is required, UV absorbing additives can be blended in. For applications that do not require transparency to visible spectrum, we recommend SC-7055 which is opaque and available in white or other hues. Both of these fluoro-polymer base coatings are UV stable and highly chemical resistant, and are excellent for outdoor applications such as outdoor sculptures!
In the past, we found that many of our customers preferred to send in small test specimens for us to apply various coatings. After the coating, we return the specimens to our customers for their examination and further testing. There is no cost for this service other than shipping.
We believe a close working relationship between the designers and engineers is the key to bringing innovative products to the market.